Border + In Passing

BORDER
Dir. Sasha Shprotser
2025, EE, 20'

Over four days, the director undertakes an 80-kilometer solo journey on foot from Narva, Estonia – her homeland – to her grandmother’s grave in Slantsy, Russia, just beyond the border. This journey is dangerous and hostile, while she is armed with a camera and profound questions about her heritage. A minimalist yet narratively and cinematographically innovative trip along a dirt road.

IN PASSING
Dir. Gailė Garnelytė
2025, LT, 70'

For more than a decade, Artūras Morozovas has been photographing people in vulnerable situations – people affected by the war in Ukraine, as well as people experiencing social isolation in Lithuania. He is exploring social problems that the soviet regime has done to both countries. In the film, we meet Rita, a mother of three children who lost her husband to suicide and has a disability; Danutė, who lives alone in the forests; soldiers Lisa and Jaška, brutally murdered by the Russians, as well as Ivan, whose home was recently destroyed by a bomb. Despite Artūras desire to remain impartial and objective, a close bond forms between the photographer and his characters, so the film is about the miracle of human connection and hope.